Freeing Up Capital

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- BP has put 34 sites located throughout the Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio, marketing areas up for sale. As reported in a CSP Daily News Flash yesterday, of the 34 sites, 17 are BP-branded gas stations, of which two are closed and can also be offered for redevelopment for other commercial use. The remaining 15 sites will be offered for commercial redevelopment, including two vacant land parcels.

This is a continuation of the BP strategy to put more sites into the hands of independent businesspeople who will market [image-nocss] under the BP brand, company spokesperson Scott Dean told CSP Daily News. This frees up more capital for BP's core businesses of oil and gas production, refining and alternativeenergy.

The move is not a part of the strategy to expand the ampm brand. The company said early this year that ampm would become its national brand. These are smaller sites, not large ampm or Connect formats, Dean added.

BP markets more than 15 billion gallons of gasoline every year to U.S. consumers through 13,000 retail outlets.

The BP brand is distinctive in Ohio, said Hope Mineo, managing director of Chicago-based NRC Realty Advisors LLC, which has been retained by the company to coordinate the sale.

The BP sites are being sold through NRC's sealed-bid sale process. The deadline for sealed-bid submission is Nov. 8, 2007.

NRC will conduct a How-To-Bid Seminar on October 18 in Columbus. Contact the NRC Customer Service Center at (800) 747.3342, extension 717. NRC has prepared a complimentary color portfolio brochure with site information summaries and maps. To submit a bid, bidders must obtain a property-specific package (PSP) for each site to be bid upon. Each PSP contains a site-specific bid package, including bid instructions, a bidding form and purchase contract. Each PSP additionally contains site-specific due diligence information, such as a title commitment, survey and environmental information. PSPs may be purchased from NRC in either hard-copy or CD-ROM format at $35 and $25, respectively. Visit
www.nrc.com/717.

NRC specializes in the accelerated sale of North American commercial real estate property. With a concentration in the convenience store industry, NRC provides divestiture, commercial and financial advisory real estate services. Clients have included ampm, BP, Shell, Sunoco and White Hen, as well as GE Capital, Bank One, Wachovia, Kmart and closely-held distributorships and independent retailers.